Wrestlers on the card :-
The first non-Brit King Pro full wrestling event review I’ve written in a decade!
“We Will Rise” was our first No Mercy Wrestling show. I’ve been attending independent wrestling for about 20 years now, watching companies like FWA, 4FW, Superstars of Wrestling, and more recently Brit King Pro, New Wave, Attack!, South West Wrestling, Evolution, Pro Wrestling Chaos…and now No Mercy! Typically myself and my Wife, Susie, don’t venture as far West as Caerphilly for wrestling shows, but the card convinced us to make an exception. Over the last couple of years, we’ve become fans of people like Harrison Bennett, James Ellis, Tommy Vril, Chicago Desailly, and Shane Hook. We also couldn’t miss the No Mercy debut of The Blockbusters, having gotten to know them through Brit King this year.
The play-by-play review of the event will start shortly, but before that a few general notes…
The production for No Mercy was spectacular. The best production I’ve seen at a local indie show for years. They had a proper entrance stage, complete with a ramp and two large video screens either side. They had decent lighting in the entranceway. They had smoke. It was very impressive. The quality production value on the entranceway coupled with us sitting next to it led to us capturing some of my favourite pictures I’ve ever taken at a wrestling show. Case in point...
The only downside was that the floodlights around the ring to light it were bright and distracting. This meant some of the videos in the highlights below aren’t the best quality. Overhead lighting would be much more audience-friendly, but I understand that it’s likely a complication of the venue itself.
But back to the positives…at the start of the show and before the main event, No Mercy wrestling showed video packages, highlighting the major stories and feuds leading into the show. This was a really nice touch. Not all indie companies have large screens to be able to do this, but it’s a huge benefit. You can’t assume that everyone in the audience knows the state of play – we didn’t! – and having a facility to fill them in before the matches was really cool. They also put these videos out on social media before the event. Again, another great touch.
In line with New Wave and Chaos, the meet-and--greet with the talent took place before the show as opposed to companies like Brit King that do it post-show. I’ve really got to highlight here that the wrestlers were all so welcoming. Some of the most charming, talkative, interesting people I’ve ever met at wrestling meet-and-greets…and I’ve done a lot of them! There was a family feel to the event. A lot of the attendees knew each other; a lot of the wrestlers were clearly ecstatic to be there and grateful for the fans attending. Some highlights of the meet-and-greet were finally getting a picture with Shane Hook and getting an 8”x10” signed, chatting to Tommy Vril again, getting to meet Levi Cooper for the first time, and getting to chat to Leon Brando. A lot of the talent were interested in the blog and the YouTube channel. Plus, most exciting of all, a lot of them had read my recent article on the rise of Welsh wrestling (currently up to 40,000 reads!).
One Fall were ringside to take pictures of the event. Big fan of One Fall’s photography. They get some truly epic shots. Another thing to note is that the One Fall guys and the cameramen were rarely in the way throughout the whole show. They positioned themselves in corners or angles to make sure the attendees could see the action.
Little Crater-bomb there...
Onto the action!
Match 1: No Mercy Tag Team Championships Match – Harrison Bennett & James Ellis (C) vs. The Blockbusters (Toby St. John & Jordan Sparkes)
The debut of The Blockbusters! One of the best tag teams in Britain. I do feel as though we need more tag teams like The Blockbusters: an actual team. As opposed to two wrestlers that are just smushed together for a while. Becoming an elite team takes time and practise, and synergy, and it’s rare you get that in a short space of time. It would be nice to see tag team wrestling get more spotlight. Sure, we have teams like Act Two, Subculture, and The Blockbusters (to name a few), but it would be nice to see more.
Typically we watch The Blockbusters at Brit King, where they’re babyfaces. It was fun to see the dynamic of them being a heel team. They’ve always been charismatic, but their character work seems to be growing from strength-to-strength every time we see them. I really like them as heels. The Hollywood Blondes-esque presentation of the team naturally leans more towards heel than babyface.
Harrison Bennett and James Ellis are two of the most complete wrestlers on the indies today. Look the part, can cut great promos, phenomenal in the ring, compelling to watch…there’s a reason both are wearing a lot of gold right now. One of the things that sets Ellis apart from 99% of people on the indies is that he uploads promos and hype videos to his social media pages. He’s masterful in his ability to get people interested in what he’s doing. It’s a secret weapon that few wrestlers are utilising. Ellis is great at it. Charles Crowley is the absolute King of it. Tommy Vril is great at it…it’s surprising that in 2025 more wrestlers and promotions aren’t utilising social media more to get their characters over. As I said in my Brit King review yesterday, connection makes money. Some people will go because they just love wrestling, but more people will go if they know the wrestlers on the card. The better they know you, the more likely they are to buy tickets, buy merchandise, and make noise when in the crowd. Social media is a free way to get that engagement. Take this Crowley video as an example. He’s showcasing his character and his immeasurable skill while also hyping an upcoming match. Genius.
But back to the opener…
The story of the match was that Harrison Bennett was not allowed to have Rayne Leverkusen as his partner, by order of James Ellis. James Ellis would choose a partner for Harrison…himself! That’s right. Harrison was stuck with James Ellis. This led to some great moments in the match, such as Ellis refusing to tag Harrison in and Ellis taking it upon himself to tag himself in when Harrison was within arm’s reach.
The match itself was solid. There were some memorable moments – one I’m calling “the 69 spot” is highlighted in the video below. After a back-and-forth contest, Harrison had the match won until Ellis pulled him out of the way and stole the victory for himself. Bennett and Ellis retain the titles…much to the chagrin of Bennett and the elation of Ellis. A fun match that moved future stories forwards, while also being a good showcase for the debuting Blockbusters. Win-win.
Match highlights! :-
Match 2: Tommy Vril vs. CJ Rawlings
Of all the new wrestlers we were watching for the first time, two stood out the most. Levi Cooper and CJ Rawlings. We entered the night woefully uninformed on Rawlings and left thoroughly impressed. What a talent! As it turns out, Rawlings has been around for quite a long time, which makes sense as he’s polished as a performer. He moves like someone that is comfortable in the ring.
Contrastingly, we’ve been fortunate enough to watch Vril quite a few times this year. Against some bloody brilliant workers like Charles Crowley, Mark Andrews, Shane Hook, Harrison Bennett, Tommy Kyle, and now CJ Rawlings. Vril has definitely become a favourite of ours. As I alluded to above, Vril is an excellent character. In fact, his character work is so good that it often gets highlighted over his tremendous in-ring work. He’s a special talent with a very bright future. One of the things that sets Vril apart is how he moves. He comes from a dance background and it shows. His movements are graceful and effortless. Very snake-like at times. It makes him stand out. Then you’ve got the hype videos he puts out on social media and the goosebump-inducing ring entrance…he’s a star waiting to be found by a big company.
The match was decent: there were a lot of great counters. Rawlings had an answer to Tommy’s typical signature moves, countering the springboard clothesline with a dropkick. At one point Rawlings chopped Vril repeatedly while Vril was on his knees. Vril fell backwards with his legs bent under his back…this is where the dance training comes in useful for Vril as he was able to launch himself back up to his knees. It was an impressive spot. Rawlings’ turnbuckle fallaway slam to Vril was also perfection.
Vril was ultimately the victor, but both of the combatants came out of the match looking strong in my eyes. It was another notable performance from Vril and one heck of a first impression from Rawlings. One of the best matches of the night.
Match 3: Iron Cobra Tournament Final - Chicago Desailly vs. Eli Blake
I wrote quite in-depth about Chicago yesterday during my review of Brit King’s “Ultimate Supremacy” event and I’d like to echo those sentiments again here…
Chicago is a massive success story of 2025 and it was really gratifying to see his impeccable year capped off with winning the Iron Cobra Tournament. He’s completely deserving of the honour.
Like a lot of people on the card, it was our first time watching Eli Blake live. Eli had a really good showing. The match was back-and-forth with lots of impressive moments, including Blake countering Chicago’s suicide dive to the outside with a forearm to the face, plus Chicago kicking Blake off of the turnbuckle all the way to the outside!
There was a controversial ending as Blake got the 3-count while Chicago’s hand was instinctively on the ropes, which the referee didn’t spot. The match was restarted and Chicago got the win and the Iron Cobra cane! It looked as though Blake was going to attack Chicago with the cane, but instead handed it to him in a surprising display of professionalism.
Match highlights! :-
The interval came after the conclusion of the Iron Cobra Tournament and attendees had the option of purchasing a picture with them and Chicago in the ring – cane included – for a small fee. It was great to see Chicago in this position as the mid-session ring picture is always reserved for the biggest and most popular stars typically.
Match 4: Fatal 4-Way – Big Van Wesker vs. Nathan Fisher vs. Ricky Regan vs. Riley Nova
This match was interesting for a multitude of reasons. All four combatants were new to us, however we’d met all four during the meet-and-greet earlier in the afternoon. So we knew them as people a little bit, but didn’t know them as performers. Rarely the case.
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Great crop of talent in this match. It started with one babyface, Wesker, trying to fight off three heels. He was holding his own until he got overwhelmed. The heels eventually spoiled their own broth as Fisher got sick of being pushed around by Regan and Nova…and he turned on them.
The match quickly disintegrated into Wesker and Fisher battling it out against Regan and Nova. It was a fast-paced, exciting contest. The nature of a fatal 4-way match lends itself to be exciting because while two people catch their breath, the other two can keep the action moving. It was chaotic, there was offence and excitement coming from every corner of the ring.
In the end the original babyface, Wesker, was declared the winner after choking out Ricky Regan.
Match highlights! :-
Match 5: Shane Hook vs. Levi Cooper
Shane Hook is one of the best young talents in Britain right now. We’ve been lucky enough to watch him live multiple times this year and he really is special. His athleticism is one thing – and very impressive – but his ability to turn that athleticism into a connection with the crowd is what’s setting him apart. The crowds at New Wave, Chaos, and No Mercy have all loved him. It’s part of the reason why he’s already wrestling for the main championships at New Wave and Chaos. His stock is rising and it’s rising quickly.
I was familiar with Levi Cooper and a fan from afar before the bout – and had been speaking to him on Instagram a couple of days before this event – but it was our first time watching him live…a pattern is emerging in this review, isn’t it?
For my money this was match of the night, just pipping Vril/Rawlings to the post. The athleticism from both was off-the-chart! I love impressive aerial moves as much as anyone, but only if it doesn’t come at the expense of storytelling. I want to suspend my disbelief. I want to be drawn into the moment. Weak looking punches/kicks and too-choreographed looking matches are a bug bear of mine. Thankfully, while this had a jaw-dropping amount of big moments, Levi and Shane gave the match room to breathe. They took the time to sell and call back to earlier spots in the match, which, frankly, shows a level of ring maturity much greater than their actual ages.
They went toe-to-toe, suplex-to-suplex, flip-to-flip. There were 450’s, hurricanranas, moonsaults to the outside, and moves I can’t even name! These weren’t just flips to look pretty either; they were impactful. There was a real emphasis from both on making sure their kicks looked legit and their slams looked painful. It was a really good showcase on what the next generation of talent is capable of. Huge congrats to both. Much like Vril/Rawlings, Shane got the win, but both left the building bigger stars than when they arrived.
Match highlights! :-
Match 6: Eight-Man Tag Team Elimination Match For Control Of The Company – Team No Mercy (Adam Crater, Joseph Conners, Kenny Mantra & Leon Brando) vs. Team Brilliance Pro (James Ellis, Kelly Sixx, MJ Grayson, and Sammy Gallagher)
It was our first time watching 6 of these combatants live. We’d seen Adam Crater before – most recently in a gruelling dog collar match against Mulligan for Pro Wrestling Chaos; a match which Crater is still carrying wounds from – and we’d seen James Ellis many times before, but everyone else was new.
As mentioned at the start of the review, No Mercy aired a video package for the main event. It showed the history of the feud and how circumstances had led us to this winner-takes-all match for control of the company. Absolute quality inclusion to the presentation.
One of the question marks for the main event was who the 4th man would be for Team No Mercy. As it turns out, it was Joseph Conners, the long-time No Mercy Heavyweight Champion (before being dethroned by current Champion, MJ Grayson). Furthermore, Viktor Lindon was originally announced as a participant for Team Brilliance Pro, but wasn’t in the match. Sammy Gallagher was. This could explain why Sammy was eliminated by Adam Crater within seconds of the opening bell sounding. It was so unexpected, I didn’t even get it on video!
If a fatal 4-way match lends itself to constant action, an 8-man match definitely does. It was utter chaos. The fast-paced nature of the match made it very easy to stay engaged with what was going on. One thing was very apparent here: James Ellis is world-class. He’s so smooth in the ring. No idea who trained him, but good job!
Everyone in the match did a great job to be fair, but a number of other people also stood out: Leon Brando looked mightily impressive. He was a real ring general during the match. Brought a gravitas and power to proceedings. As did MJ Grayson. While I’ve never seen him wrestle one-on-one, you can tell that he’s talented. He’s an absolute beast. The returning Joseph Conners also looked phenomenal. His athleticism and timing really caught my eye.
As the match started whittling down it became 3-on-1: three heels (James Ellis, MJ Grayson, and Kelly Sixx) vs. one babyface (Kenny Mantra). Mantra was a surprising choice as I was expecting the returning Conners to get the babyface-in-peril spot. Fair play, Mantra did a brilliant job in telling the story of overcoming the odds.
Mantra pinned Sixx, leaving Ellis and Grayson. Grayson turned on Ellis. He walked out of the match. I’m not sure if this is the start of a babyface turn or if he just wanted to remain No Mercy Wrestling instead of Brilliance Pro, but it was a surprising moment for the fans.
Just James Ellis and Kenny Mantra remained….Mantra got the victory! No Mercy Wrestling continues! The show concluded with the babyfaces all celebrating in the ring together….it was an unexpected celebration in Joseph Conners case as he returned to the ring later than the rest…wearing a fanny pack...and without shoes on…
You never know what a wrestling show is going to bring!
The crowd went crazy when Kenny pinned Ellis. Everyone was yelling and stomping – some even went to the ring apron to bang on it. It was a beautiful celebration of all that is good about professional wrestling to end the show. Five of the six matches were won by babyfaces.
Match highlights! :-
Now for the big question: would we return to No Mercy? Most definitely. The setup is awesome, the wrestlers were engaging, and the in-ring action was impressive. Everyone involved should be proud of themselves.
If you haven’t already, please can you subscribe to the YouTube channel? It helps us all. I don’t make a penny from it - in fact it costs me money and a lot of time – but it’s a worthwhile cause to help spotlight the incredible abundance of talent that we have in the region. The bigger the channel gets, the more I can spotlight the wrestlers, the companies, and their various on-demand services. I already have people at Brit King shows telling me that they bought tickets after reading one of my reviews or watching some match highlights, so it’s definitely gaining traction. It’s the very definition of a win-win situation.
Thank you so much for reading. Until next time, I’m your Friendly Neighbourhood Shangel.
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